Approved NPC Shadow Visitants

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

Spoiler

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Espionage, strike team.
Permissions: N/A
Links: Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike.

GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Shadow Visitants.
Affiliation: Dominion of Light, Battlemaster Mahtara, Tephrike, Cassius.
Classification: Black Ops.
Description: It is within the purvey of the Light to to take peremptory strikes. If one can kill an individual rather than a thousand then that is righteous. Centuries ago, the Jedi Council authorised an attempt to assassinate Count Dooku in the hopes of ending the Clone Wars. Unfortunately, they entrusted this task to Quinlas Vos and Asajj Ventress. One was a heretic, the other a would-be Sith.

At least that is what an orthodox follower of the Dominion of Light would have to say on this matter. The Windian Jedi Order categorically rejects the idea that the defenders of the Light must remain passive and wait for the servants of the dark side to strike. The Shadow Visitants are part of the Restorers of Community Health. This is a special division of the Dominion's Jedi Shadows. They are an important tool in the arsenal of the totalitarian Jedi theocracy. Some of the Shadows' most dangerous assassination and infiltration missions are entrusted to them.

The Visitants are skilled clandestine operators. They are trained in combat and stealth, but also in slicing, poison and deception. One of their unique abilities is Phasing, a power that enables them to alter their state of being with the Force and pass through solid matter such as walls and doors. Moreover, they are very skilled at using the Force to render themselves invisible as well as obfuscate their Force presence or alignment. Thus they can hide in a crowd and not be detected by their Force affinity. The Visitants do not have a standard uniform or robe and make ample use of disguises.

They are charged with infiltration, theft, espionage and assassination. The Visitants tread a fine line, as the nature of their work tends to require them go undercover and pass as one of the enemy before they can strike. This can necessitate breaking the hallowed rules of the Windian Jedi Order. This makes them both holy warriors who fight the relentless shadow war against the adversaries of the Light, but also sinners who sacrifice their own purity to protect the bastion of Light. At least that is one way of looking at it. Indeed, it has become part of their internal ideology that they kill to heal. Those who are struck down by their blade are saved from committing further acts of sin. By taking the burden upon themselves, they ensure that the good citizens of the Dominion do not have to sully themselves.

Sometimes the Visitants have also acted as cleaners, mopping up unsavoury details that the Dominion's wise Council has reasoned the public is not ready for. The truth is precious, but order is even more important. Without it, civilisation will be at the mercy of the forces of chaos. The Jedi Inquisition, the ideological thought police of the Dominion, has tended to be suspicious of the Visitants and tried to bring them under its control, but has failed so far.

Their missions are classified and their existence is not acknowledged, though the Dominion's leadership is apt at exploiting the mystique that surrounds them. Each Visitant is handpicked and receives a new name and identity upon induction, provided they make it through the gruelling training process. The Visitants have been known to make use of memory alteration to preserve the secrets of the Dominion as well as their own.

Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, where Force-Imbued Blades are more common. The Visitants are trained in the use of these enchanted blades, but more often than not will make use of guns, explosives, poison and the like. More traditionalist Jedi may scoff at the use of such 'crude' or 'dishonourable' tools, but the war against the forces of darkness does not leave room for such quaint notions. The Visitants often refer to their operations as 'helpful visits'. Even cold-blooded assassins have a sense of humour, after all. Needless to say they are rather unforgiving when it comes to betrayal or desertion.

Jedi Master Cassius, a prominent member of the junta that now rules the Dominion, used to be a member of the group. He is a clone of the late Grandmaster Aegus and, ironically, the man who killed him. Cassius was exposed to the dark side of the Dominion and its many secrets from early on. His entree into the Shadows consisted of burying evidence that Luke Skywalker believed in the value of redemption and forgiveness and that he had not slain Vader. The Luke Skywalker from the holocron might be the true one instead of a Sith deception, but even if it were so, he was not the one the people of Tephrike needed. So what the Dominion taught was the truth, from a certain point of view. Cassius is a capable, but also manipulative man who wields a lot of influence in the new régime, though he has had to acknowledge Mahtara's role as paramount leader.

All in all, the group has twelve members. The leader of the Visitants is a Mirialan called Chara. As is common for many inhabitants of the Dominion, she is a clone who was grown in a laboratory and raised in a state-run nursery. Her template was one of many labourers who had been charged with colonising a province whose original population had been decimated due to war and ' forced population transfers'. Charra would have lived a life as a common labourer, repaying the Dominion for creating her by toiling for it in a mine. But she unexpectedly manifested Force powers. This made her valuable, but also a cause of suspicion, as she was suspected of having hidden her affinity since her line was one of labour drones. As was the law, she was inducted into the Jedi Order. However, her lineage meant that she lacked the connections a clone of a prestigious Force-User would have. This held her back in the hierarchy, but also made her useful for a group like the Visitants. The Shadows recruited her for her diligence and observational skills. She began her rise after assassinating a Mon Calamari separatist leader. She has been an ally to Cassius, who is a bit older, but also at times a rival.

Harla is one of the members of the group. Her name is the Yuuzhan Vong word for 'trickster' and is a mocking reference to Yun-Harla, the Yuuzhan Vong Trickster Goddess. It is not the name she was born with, but she has chosen it to mock her people. Most unusually for a Yuuzhan Vong, Harla is not Force-Dead, but Force-Sensitive. This resulted in her people seeing her as an abomination. Here it is pertinent to note that both the Dominion of Light and the Vaderites regard Vong as akin to demons. Indeed, the latter seek to actively exterminate the Vong, which has driven them into the arms of the Republican Guard, an anti-Force-User rebel movement that regards itself as the defender of Non-Force-Users. Harla's clan was one such group. The Guard has a policy of quarantining Force-Sensitives.

When the Jeedai took her, Harla experienced it as a liberation. Rejected by her people as a blasphemous corruption, she embraced the Dominion's dogma. Her birth family had rejected her due to her genetic makeup, so giving up her name came easily. However, she also faced racism in the Dominion. While it officially abhorred racism, the Dominion was an extremely conformist society and many viewed Vong as demons.

In order to succeed, Haral had to be better than her peers. Haral fought during the Netherworld War. Her zeal, stealth and observation skills gained her a place among the Visitants. Haral is very skilled in Vong-Sense and knowledgeable about Vong creatures and bio-technology. This comes in handy when the Visitants are deployed against the Republican Guard, as Vong are quite prominent in the partisan movement. Harla has also taken an interest in projects to open more Vong to the Force and thus 'cure' them.

Aris is another prominent member of the group. He is a clone, like many citizens of the Dominion. The Dominion dislikes natural reproduction, as lust is the path to the dark side. Thus they believe that the miracle of life should happen in a laboratory in a medically sanctioned manner. However, the circumstances of his creation are a bit unusual, for his template was a Sith spy who had been heavily involved in the regime's crimes.

The template defected to the Dominion in return for protection and riches. The Shadows decided to make use of his skills and his knowledge of the enemy. They also took a sample of his DNA so that they could clone him. Naturally he was not informed of this. After Aris was eliminated due to his betrayal, the clone remained in the care of the Dominion. The clone has been fed a heavily edited version of his template's life. He suspects that not everything adds up, but still serves the Dominion. He shares his template's talent for spycraft. However, his genetic heritage imposes a glass ceiling on how far he can advance.

COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment:
Armour:

• Storm Commando Armour
• Shadowsuit

Rifles:

• Dart Gun (variable chemical payload)
• Verpine Shatter Rifle
• J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
• M-110 Pulse-Wave Disruptor
• Bolt-Thrower
• Outland Rifle (with scope)

Support/Specialised:

• CSPL-12
• Model MGL-1

Sidearms:

• Verpine Shattergun
• MSD-32
• A280 CFE
• Velocity-7 Dart Shooter
• FWG-5 Flechette Pistol
• Blaster Burster
• Adjudicator
• Enforcer
• SH-9

Misc:

• Taozin Amulet
• 7-PrG Proton Grenades, Grenades.
• Stealth Field Generator
• Misc. Poisons

Melee Weapons:

• Molecular Stiletto
• Talon Vibrodagger
• Multi-Weapon
• Force Imbued Blade

Combat Function: The Shadow Visitants are a small group of Force-Sensitives operatives. They are not frontline fighters, but specialists who excel in stealth, sabotage, and theft. In terms of Force powers, they are specialists rather than generalists. Their strongest ability is a rare Force technique called Phase. It allows them to alter their state of being with the Force and thus pass through solid matter such as walls or doors. This is a boon for infiltration and assassination operations, as well as for escaping dangerous situations. However, it is a technique that requires a good deal of focus and concentration, since otherwise things can go very wrong.

Moreover, they can conceal their Force presence and affinity from others, as well as turn invisible to sight. In keeping with this, they have manifested a skill pioneered by the ancient Dark Jedi Alema Rar. This fallen Jedi developed a ‘slippery presence’ in the Force, to the point where she became intensely forgettable and difficult even for Masters to notice outside of combat. Moreover, they can use the Mask technique to alter their appearance at the molecular level. They dismisses claims that he is drawing upon the dark side to do so. In any case, it is a very useful power for a Shadow. They have skill in Force Flash, enabling the to create bright flashes of light to disorientate enemies or temporarily short out security cameras, and have some mental abilities, including memory alteration. They have strong Sense abilities, augmenting their skill at anticipating dangers.

They can also use physical enhancement techniques, such as enhance their speed, stamina and reaction time, shift their body's inertia, control their pain and accelerate the healing process. Aside from their Force abilities, they also receive training in marksmanship, melee combat, slicing climbing, swimming, explosives, medicine and so on. They are also taught how to pilot their own craft. However, the Visitants are a very small unit, as they are only squad-sized. This imposes limitations on what can be done with them, as they are at distinct disadvantage when engaging numerically superior enemies. This is exacerbated by their lack of heavy weapons. But then taking on entire battalions is not their mission. Ideally, they are supposed to get into a target area, complete their mission and escape without fuss.

Strengths:

• Elite stealthy operatives, gifted in subversion, infiltration and assassination.
• Powerful Force-wielders who specialise in powers of stealth and concealment. They are able to use a rare Force ability called Phase, which allows them to pass through solid matter such as walls or doors. They can also use Mask to alter their appearance.

Weaknesses:

• Very small team.
• They are special operatives, not assault troops. Lacking heavy weapons or combat vehicles, they are ill-suited for pitched frontline combat. They lack the hard-hitting powers typically associated with combat-based Force-Users, as they are stealthy assassins, not warriors.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

When the Gulag Virus ravaged the Galaxy, Tephrike descended into chaos. Isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, the planet regressed technologically and socially. When the virus reached the planet, millions perished. The death toll was further increased by infighting between rival factions. Tephrike's fragile, multispecies democracy unravelled. A coalition government proved unable to restore order, contain the plague or provide shelter, food and protection to millions of displaced fleeing the fighting.

The Jedi were called upon to assume a protective stance. After government soldiers shot protesters who had come to parliament to deliver a petition, the Jedi decided that it was their duty to intervene and take control. The radical Duros Jedi Master Zaras Dant was the ringleader of the coup. With the support of renegade elements in the army, they took control of the capital Palmyra, arrested Tephrike's prime minister and disbanded parliament. However, they soon faced opposition from rebel forces, such as the Alliance of Democratic Forces. What was supposed to be a provisional emergency junta turned into a dictatorship without end. Racial tensions between Tephrike's people triggered pogroms and the Jedi came under fire when they tried to put an end to the violence. Faced with enemies on all sides, the Jedi had to militarise. They became soldiers and generals like during the Clone Wars. Except this time they were also control of the government.

Their authoritarian tendencies were intensified by betrayal within their ranks, Tephrike's economic and social collapse as well as the rise of the anti-Force-User Republican Guard and the human supremacist, Dark Side worshipping Disciples of the Vader. In place of the failed federation, they created a totalitarian theocracy. But the wars did not come to an end. The Jedi came to believe that power could only be entrusted to those who could hear the will of the Force and that they alone could save Tephrike from chaos.

The Dominion of Light was born. It produced a heavily militarised Windian Jedi Order. Many Jedi fell to the Dark Side, while staunchly believing that they still served the Light and that their actions were justified by the greater good. They grew used to power that even surpassed the authority the Jedi Lords had wielded before the Ruusan Reformation. Tephrike was engulfed by perennial conflict. Low-intensity warfare continued through the centuries, interrupted by intense flare-ups of violence and protracted battles. However, the Dominion was the dominant power after the atomic destruction of Palmyra, in spite of the paroxysms of the Cultural Revolution.

The Shadow Visitants came into being in the aftermath of the Battle of Palmyra. Full-scale warfare had ceased on Tephrike, but the Dominion still had many enemies. The most dangerous of its foes lurked in the shadows. Some passed themselves off as followers of the Light, while preaching heresy and spreading sedition in order to undermine the nation from within. Rebel agitators and terrorists and traitor Jedi needed to be unmasked and eliminated.

The ranks of the enemy needed to be infiltrated in order to acquire information and sabtoage their efforts to eclipse the Light. It was, as a conclave of wise Masters decreed, within the purview of the Light to carry out peremptory strikes against select targets. If a thousand lives could be spared by killing one person, then that was a noble act in accordance with Jedi principles.

If the Jedi Order had done its duty and remained vigilant, the evildoers who had unleashed the Gulag Virus would have been thwarted before the calamity, saving the lives of trillions. Thus the Visitants came into being, operating within the framework of the Jedi Shadows. They were attached to a division called the Restorers of Community Health, or REC for short. The Visitants assassinated separatist politicians, Republican Guard commanders and prominent Sith. Targeted assassinations were par for the course for them. They conducted acts of sabotage and spread disinformation to sow discord among the enemies of the Dominion. At the same time, they also buried knowledge that the Council considered to be unpalatable.

There were revelations the people of the Dominion simply were not ready for. A Jedi must place duty before his personal ego. He shouldered the burden of responsibility for the masses. They were also charged with securing dark side artefacts so that they could be destroyed in order to ensure that they could not fall into the wrong hands. However, the group was also drawn into the madness that was the Cultural Revolution.

The Grandmaster at the time used to eliminate or blackmail his political rivals, but then grew suspicious of the watchers and hatchet men, subjecting them a purge. The Restorers were reformed by the junta that took control following the suppression of the Blue Guards. When the Dominion designated New Ackbarea, a democratically governed, Mon Calamari city-state that had managed to remain neutral, a terrorist camp, the Visitants helped sabotage the defences of the underwater city. By the order of Jedi General Kennobi, the Dominion's navy deployed depth charges and submarines to destroy the settlement.

The Visitants were responsible for assassinating Darth Hades, an ambitious Sith Master. He was a powerful Master of the Dark Side and a fierce enemy of the Jedi, but more rational than many of his compatriots. Indeed, he was a proponent of easing discrimination of near-humans and allowing certain alien species to be recognised as 'honorary humans'. He regarded slavery, which was the bedrock of the Vaderites' society, as an inefficient practice. Indeed, some common folk the Jedi encountered described him as less arbitrarily evil than most Sith.

Cassius, a new recruit, was responsible for the operation. He used a bomb as well as his skill with a sniper rifle to eliminate the Sith Lord during a rally. Ironically, one of his helpers was a Vaderite reactionary who disapproved of Hades' 'progressive ' policies. In reprisal for the assassination attempt, the Vaderites massacred the entire population of a nearby village. The civilians were accused of having sheltered Hades' killer. All adult males over the age of fifteen were executed, while the women and children were deported to a concentration camp.

The Restorers declared the of loss deeply regrettable, but insisted that Hades had to be eliminated precisely because he was less of a megalomaniac than many of his brethren. In the long-term, his elimination would hurt the Sith. His successor Darth Furcht was cunning, but also a die-hard Vaderite who would push the Sith to extremism. In the long-term his ascent would be harmful to the Vaderites. Cassius would go on to leverage his association with the Visitants in order to build his own power base. The group carried out a campaign of politically motivated assassination, sabotage and false flag attacks during the Netherworld War, when the Dominion was driven to the brink.

The Visitants were uninvolved in the crisis that engulfed Tephrike following the arrival of a Firemane expedition in orbit. After initial skirmishes with Firemane, the Dominion sought accommodation. Firemane dispatched a delegation to its capital to initiate negotiations. However, an extremist faction in the Dominion's regime regarded this as heresy. Firemane's delegation came under attack. Elpsis, one of its members and the adoptive daughter of Firemane's ruling couple, was captured by the Jedi Inquisition. She would be subjected to physical and torture in a Dominion black site.

In response, Firemane declared war. It proceeded to enter an alliance of convenience with the Republican Guard. A short, but intense campaign followed. After heavy fighting, the allied forces were able to seize a major Dominion fortress. Meanwhile, Elpsis was able to overcome her brainwashing and defeat her captors with the aid of rebellious prisoners and a Firemane rescue force. The Dominion had been humbled, but was not beaten. Instead the Mad Grandmaster was assassinated by the Council and a junta of hardliners and pragmatists took power.

One of them was Cassius, the Jedi who had struck the fatal blow and killed the Grandmaster - his template. Cassius threw his support behind Battlemaster Mahtara, who had been declared a traitor due to his negotiations with the space people, but now returned to take the reins. Unwilling to get bogged down in a conflict far from home and with allies it distrusted, Firemane decided to be satisfied with measured gains. The Visitants were deployed to eliminate or discredit government officials and officers who opposed the new junta. They also provided support to Ashlan partisan groups that had been set up in areas seized by the rebels. With the Dominion in a state of total war against the Republican Guard, they are expected to see more action in the future.